2 teachers in NJ school sex case get house arrest

By GEOFF MULVIHILL, Associated Press

Friday, March 15, 2013

CAMDEN (AP) — Two former high school math teachers were sentenced Friday to 30 days of home confinement and two years of probation as punishment for charges stemming from inappropriate relationships with students in their southern New Jersey high school.

Jeff Logandro, 32, and Daniel Michielli, 27, both of Blackwood and both teachers at Triton High School in the Philadelphia suburb of Runnemede, gave up the right to public employment in New Jersey, but neither will be required to register as a sex offender. Both pleaded guilty last month to conspiracy to commit official misconduct.

The young woman who had a relationship with Logandro was in the courtroom watching Friday as a prosecutor read a letter from her mother, who was not identified by name, on the case: “Looking back now I can see why she never wanted to get up and go to school during her senior year,” the letter said. “Now I know how she spent her final year in high school living in fear of you and your actions toward her and the pressure from you to keep your secret.”

“Her reputation, integrity, self-respect and self-image have all been compromised by the actions of her teacher,” she said in the letter, adding that the fact that community members blamed the teen for the actions made it even harder to cope with.

The young woman authorities said Michielli had sex with was not in court. Assistant Prosecutor Mark Chase said that her family decided it was best she not attend.

Both of the former teachers declined to address the judge before their sentences, which were part of negotiated plea deals, were handed out.

The case got attention when arrests were made last October because of the number of people involved. The two teachers who were sentenced Friday and a third, Nick Martinelli, who pleaded guilty this week to hindering apprehension, were accused of inappropriate relations with female students.

Authorities said Michielli and Logandro each had inappropriate contact with students. Martinelli had sex with one former student after she graduated from school and was 18, authorities said.

The former school principal, Catherine DePaul, also pleaded guilty and has been sentenced to probation for failure to commit a crime. A second administrator, vice principal Jernee Kollock, is also charged with official misconduct. Authorities say she told a student to write an account of the relationships that made them seem less serious.

Judge Thomas A. Brown Jr., said the charges should not be taken lightly. “The schoolhouse is supposed to be a safe haven,” he told Michielli. “You have violated that trust.”